Saturday soup, that we eat on Sunday and again throughout the week.

Usually on Saturday I make a giant pot of "Rosol" Chicken soup. I then clean it up removing the chicken bits and vegetable (I don't serve these other than the carrots, because I think they tasted used). I serve it once with noodles and the remainder gets used as a good strong stock in other soups. It seems like a lot of work, but trust me once you get it going you can go watch a movie, turn it off when the movie is over and watch Saturday night live (while you're waiting for your kids to come home from "their social life") and then stick it into the fridge before you go to bed. Or train your kids, like I did, to stick it in when they come home. A large post-it note, the exhaust fan and light over your stove top going is a great reminder.

Mature hen for stock (gizzards remove and don't use)
1 piece of beef shank, not too fatty, with bone in. (do not cut up)
3 or 4 stalks of celery
2 onions
the green part of the leek (reserve white part for leek and mushroom soup)
2 carrots
parsley and/or dill.*
2 tbsps. Vegeta if desired.(available in the spice section of your grocers)

Wash the meat and put in a 3quart pot to boil, or a size big enough to acomodate you meat covered with water and a little room at the top for boiling. Fill another large stock pot, as big as you have, with water and bring to a boil. When your pot with the meat boils there will be some impurities from the meat. Drain, wash the meat again and then put it into the larger pot. I have a cast iron frying pan that I use for this next step, but any thick bottom pan will do. I blacken the onions (peeled) No oil or grease of any kind, just put the onion cut into quarters into the pan at a high temperature and blacken it on all sides. Then into the stock pot. Add the remainder of ingredients except Vegeta, and cook on med/low for about 3hrs. (covering the pot will reduce the evaporation) Add salt and pepper to taste. If your chicken was a truly mature one, your soup will be good and strong flavored and you may not need to add the Vegeta, otherwise add that at the end it tends to be quite salty so taste in between tablespoons. Cook noodles of choice separately serve strained soup with noodles. Strain remainder and freeze in appropriate portions for use later in the week. I usually do this on Saturday night (I have no life) and the house smells great while the soup is cooking. Makes a great Sunday lunch. Why do I serve this on Sunday? Well I always find that Sunday lunch has to be a rushed, (boys running off to work and all) So the soup has cooled overnight in the refrigerator and I have an opportunity to remove any fat from the top (it's all about reducing fat isn't it. I just heat up what we are going to use that day and then the rest gets divided into use able portion size. I'm usually too tired to do this late on Saturday. It's just me, you can eat it anytime you like.

smacznego or enjoy.


*One spring my mother fixated on "PARSLEY".Her mobility was already somewhat compromised and the dementia obviously was in it's beginning stages. All 5 of us, her children, and her two friends were sent on these missions to find just the right parsley plant for her garden. And then of course we had to plant them. She ended up with about 1,000 different varieties of parsley, still not the right ones. I was so ticked off that I boycotted parsley, and didn't use it in my soup for a very long time. Then when her diet became just soups I tried to use everything I could think of to make her meals tasty and parsley was reintroduced. I had forgotten how much flavour it truly adds. But the soups were more than o.k. without it so...